Throughout this specification (including in the claims), the expression "edible plant material" is used to denote edible fruit or vegetable material, and "pieces of edible plant material" denotes edible fruit pieces or edible vegetable pieces.
Small dried fruit pieces are a popular industrial food ingredient used in baking, trail mixes and cereal applications.
Conventional dried fruit pieces are often sticky and tend to clump together unless coated with cornstarch, vegetable oil or other non-stick coating agents. Fruit pieces without preservatives are difficult to store at moisture contents greater than 25% because of the increased risks of yeast and mold growth. At moisture contents below 25% there is generally not enough free water to support growth of yeast and mold.
One method of manufacturing fruit pieces is to form ground fruit paste into strips, and dice or cut the strips into square or rectangular bits. Another method entails blending and extruding finely ground or chopped diced fruit with functional ingredients (which can include colors and flavors) and coating the resulting pieces with non-stick coatings to prevent clumping. However, both of these methods produce pieces that tend to absorb moisture and lose their integrity rapidly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,679, issued Aug. 14, 1996, discloses a process for freezing and thawing and then vacuum drying fruits and vegetables to produce crispy and tender puffed food products.
An English language abstract of Japanese patent application 58134942A discloses a method of processing fruit by rapid freezing at low temperature, pulverizing the fruit at low temperature and defrosting the pulverized fruit with the addition of gum arabic and/or sugar. Although useful in jams and jellies, pulverized fruit particles are too small to be useful as a snack food item or as an ingredient where larger particulates are desired. In addition, pulverized fruit particles, when molded, diced, or otherwise formed into larger pieces, tend to absorb moisture and lose their integrity rapidly.
It would be advantageous to have a process for producing preservative-free shattered fruit (or vegetable) pieces that have a useful size and a random shaped appearance, and do not tend to absorb moisture and lose their integrity as quickly.